A joint study in Foshan, Dongguan and Shenzhen has found that the number of people of pensionable age finding romance is on the increase. However, due to issues of property and the cultural concept of face, very few are tying the knot, Guangzhou Daily reports.

A report jointly released by a number of matchmaking websites showed that, across the county, 90 million people aged 54-63 have sought romance online in recent years, with loneliness cited as the main reason. So far, 38.2% of men and 29.7% of women have found someone.

However, the legal headache that would arise from the burgeoning societal concept of the prenuptial agreement and the face issues that rewriting the will would undoubtedly cause are among the reasons for older couples refraining from getting married.

226 people over 50 married at the registry office located on Guicheng Street in Foshan’s Nanhai District last year. Across the county, 11,000 people of that age group got hitched, accounting for 2.05% of all marriages. The rate has increased to 2.2% so far this year.

Mr. Wu, 67, who lives in Jinshazhou, was widowed ten years ago. At that time, his two daughters were very keen to introduce him to a new partner. Two years later, he met Ms. Liao while dancing in a public square late at night.

With the encouragement of both families, Wu overcame his apprehensions to marry Liao, in spite of the chatter that no doubt went on behind their backs. The couple has gone on to become one of the success stories, having signed an agreement between themselves about the bequeathment of property: “The only pressure we have comes from outside, in our own hearts we are rounded and happy,” Wu told the paper.

More common than Mr. Wu’s and Ms. Liao’s approach is that of cohabiting without getting married. According to Dongguan’s Centre for Marriage Registration, the vast majority of couples who remarry are aged between 30 and 50.

The main thing holding back lovestruck old couples from doing this is “face,” which the scholar Lin Yutang described as being that which “cannot be translated or defined.”

Even though nationally respected psychologist Liu Jun is convinced that being in love is good for the over-50s, there is a stigma attached to couples enjoying romance at that age.

In the Pearl River Delta, where many people are far away from their families, everybody needs to have some connection with their past. Failing that, they need somebody to endure the confusing modern world with.

This report was published on the Double Ninth Festival, about which the following Wang Wei poem was published:

As an alone guest in a strange place,
I get double homesick on the festival day.
I can imagine from far away
that my brother is stepping on some high hill
to collect the dogwood as apotropaion
all of the family members are sticking it
everywhere and everyone,
then they just find
there is no me among them…